Correlation of Cutting Force and Power Consumption for Ultrasonic-Vibration-Assisted Cutting of Label Paper Stacks

Experiments comparing conventional and ultrasonic vibration assisted guillotine cutting of paper stacks have been performed on plain and aluminum coated label paper. It is shown that ultrasonic vibration assisted cutting reduces the cutting force for both paper species. Reduction of the cutting force allows the down holder force to be decreased and lowers the compression of the paper stack necessary to prevent pull-out of the top sheets of paper. Using a higher amplitude setting on the ultrasonic generator further decreases the cutting force for the paper stack. For three different cutting speeds, it is shown that ultrasonic vibration assisted cutting force reduction depends on the average speed of the tool for both paper species. A linear regression with present experimental data is done to obtain an equation for the relation between input generator power and resulting cutting force. Finally, the quality of the cutting edge is examined, quality parameters are defined, and according to these the cutting edge quality is assessed.